Amazon looks to bolster its digital video services with $500 million acquisition of Elemental

Amazon’s public cloud provider, Amazon Web Services (AWS), today announced that it has acquired video-processing startup Elemental Technologies for a figure believed to be around $500 million.

Elemental claims to be the leading supplier of software-defined video solutions for multiscreen content delivery. The company was founded nine years ago in Portland, Oregon, and has offices in nine countries across the world. It has over 700 media franchise customers and can count the likes of CNN, Comcast and HBO among its clients. In the tech industry, Elemental customers include Apple, Microsoft, Intel, Nvidia and Amazon.

"Together, we'll collaborate on deeper technology integrations and new infrastructure offerings so that media and entertainment companies can evolve their hybrid and cloud models as they continue to innovate their services for viewers," Senior vice president Andy Jassy said in a press release.

Elemental will continue to operate its business as a separate brand from Amazon Web Services, but it will also be integrated with AWS to accelerate the innovation of next-generation services that feature a range of solutions for customers leveraging on-premises assets, hybrid architectures, and cloud, according to the statement.

Amazon Web Services will also incorporate Elemental’s technology into its cloud infrastructure services mobile video offering. The deal is seen as a smart move for AWS, as the media industry increasingly moves toward internet based delivery. Both Amazon’s instant video service and Netflix run on the AWS cloud computing infrastructure.

The precise financial terms of the acquisition have not been revealed, although the deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter. Elemental joins ClusterK, Amiato, and 2lemetry on the list of companies that have recently been acquired by Amazon Web Services.